Hamilton Police request salary and benefits raise.

Hamilton Police Chief Glen De Caire

For the 2011 budget, Hamilton Police are requesting a 4.97 per cent increase in funding, using 4.41 of that per cent to increase salaries and wages. Police Chief Glen DeCaire spoke yesterday at the first of three town hall meetings, the first taking place yesterday at a Stoney Creek municipal building.  De Caire noted that in the last 10 years, crime rates (except for fraud) have been declining. Given that the average number of police officers per 100,000 in Canada is 203, Hamilton lags behind with only 156 police officers, even though it ranks third when it comes to the number of cases reported per officer. A couple of weeks ago, firefighters were given a 9 per cent wage increase, should Hamilton Police be getting a raise as well? Let us know what you think in the poll on the right.

UPDATE: 53% of readers polled believe that police are entitled to a raise, 47% disagree.